IT services firm Kovarus has one big question for businesses looking into public or private cloud projects: "Why are you doing it?"

The answer will help determine whether a cloud transformation is just an extension of ongoing consolidation work, or whether it is meant to support a far more strategic agenda for your company.

"All of our customers are talking about cloud. I think the reason they like to talk to us is that we ask them why they are looking at it. Everybody is fed up with the hype and feeling pressured," said Kovarus CIO Andy Lewis, who was brought on to help the 10-year-old integrator build its cloud consulting practice in 2012. (Lewis previously held positions at companies including EMC, Visa, Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB, and Galileo International.)

Like many other traditional VARs recasting themselves as cloud integration partners, Kovarus, based in San Ramon, California, boasts high-level certification status when it comes to deploying and supporting infrastructure from the likes of Cisco, EMC, and VMware.

But its cloud consulting strategy centers on helping companies first gain a better understanding of their existing IT infrastructure, and how it aligns with the overall business agenda.

To that end, Kovarus teamed up with FrontRange Solutions in February 2013, which specializes in IT services management solutions that consider cloud priorities within the context of a more comprehensive framework. Without that framework, many cloud projects will be directionless. "If we don't know where you are today, we can't get you to the destination," Lewis said.

A survey conducted for Kovarus by TeleVerde among North America CIOs, IT directors, and other decision makers found that almost 40 percent of them didn't have a complete understanding of their IT assets. What's more, approximately 65 percent of them said they didn't have the time, tools, or processes in place to collection that information, which is critical to calculating overall IT utilization.

"By starting with these basics, you can better along your IT decision making to increase efficiency, reduce risk, and prepare for the transformation needed for future waves of change," Lewis said, commenting on the findings.